


the world in your hands

by smashleyed



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, and standard family i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:21:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24695947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smashleyed/pseuds/smashleyed
Summary: Masumi spends an evening at the Minagi house, and handles precious cargo.
Relationships: Usui Masumi & Minagi Tsuzuru
Comments: 26
Kudos: 88





	the world in your hands

"Up!"

Masumi stares down at the littlest Minagi, who's pressed to his legs with his arms stretched up toward him as far as they'll go. The eyes that match Tsuzuru's are brighter than the sun, gaps between his little teeth on full display as he smiles in anticipation.

Masumi thinks that Yuzuru deserves nothing less than absolutely anything in the world his heart desires. But his hands don't know what to do, so he only stares.

"I wanna get up!" Yuzuru repeats, voice strained in frustration as his hands valiantly grasp at Masumi's jacket. A little crease appears in his brow, and his smile is replaced by a pout.

Masumi's eyes widen and fly toward Tsuzuru. He glares when the easy, expectant way Tsuzuru meets his eyes lets him know he's been observed for some moments now, but he lets that go. He has to. "What do I do?"

"'What do you do?'" Tsuzuru repeats with a hint of laughter. Masumi glares harder and hurries to remind himself that it's all for Yuzuru. "You pick him up. I mean, if you want—"

"How?"

"... With your hands?"

" _Masu!_ " Yuzuru cuts in, his voice bouncing with the rest of him. Masumi glances down. Yuzuru whines insistently, and his eyes begin to shine.

When Masumi looks back up to Tsuzuru, his eyes are panicked, pleading. "I don't want to hurt him."

Tsuzuru blinks, then deflates, softening in understanding. With a little huff through his nose and a warm smile, he puts down the shirt he was folding and heads over.

"Hey, Yuzuru?" he says.

"Huh?" Though he still leans into Masumi, Yuzuru turns to his brother at the sound of his name.

"I'm gonna pick you up for a second, and then you can have Masumi, okay?" He reaches for Yuzuru, but stops when Yuzuru tucks his upper arms tightly against his sides and regards him suspiciously.

"I want Masu," Yuzuru reminds him. Masumi's heart swells.

"I know," Tsuzuru says, impossibly patient. "He just needs some help before he can hold you, so I'm gonna pick you up and give you right to him. I'll be really fast, I promise."

A second passes, then Yuzuru begrudgingly turns and lifts his arms for Tsuzuru to take him. "Help Masu, okay?"

"Okay."

Masumi takes note of the way Tsuzuru scoops him up gently but efficiently, committing it to mind for next time. Tsuzuru steps closer to Masumi, closer than Masumi would normally allow, but this is a special case. Yuzuru's arms are already reaching for him again, and this time Masumi's lift to meet him as Tsuzuru carefully passes him into Masumi's hold.

"It's easiest to hold him against your side, like—" he watches Masumi shift his weight and hold Yuzuru over his hip, "—yep, like that, good, and just prop him up with your arm around him, but he'll slide down sometimes so be mindful of that, you'll just have to kinda hoist him back up. You'll get it." Masumi processes Tsuzuru's murmured instructions in the back of his mind, but at the forefront is the pudgy arms that wrap around his shoulders and the return of that toothy grin.

"Hi, Masu!" Yuzuru chirps, one hand reaching to pat his cheek.

He stares into his eyes, struck dumb. "Hi, Yuzuru."

Masumi looks at Tsuzuru, who, although his hands are up and ready in case Yuzuru slips from Masumi's arms, is obviously trying not to smile _too_ hard. Masumi's expression falls slightly deadpan in response, but after he glances away and back, he gives him a little nod.

Tsuzuru's eyes are so warm when he looks briefly at Yuzuru that Masumi suddenly finds himself wishing for the first time that he'd grown up with a younger sibling. Then, seemingly satisfied that Masumi has things in hand, he gives a little wave and turns to get back to folding laundry.

Yuzuru's hands tinker carefully with the headphones around Masumi's neck. Masumi can't remember ever letting someone else touch his headphones, but the look of fascination on Yuzuru's face makes that fact irrelevant.

They stand there a moment longer before Yuzuru straightens and looks at Masumi like he's remembered something important. "Let's go see my toys! Okay?"

Masumi has already been introduced to all of Yuzuru's toys. "Okay," he says.

"Think you'll be okay going up the stairs?" Tsuzuru asks him.

Normally, Masumi's inclination when Tsuzuru asks him, well, just about anything, is to tell him to mind his own business, or ignore him outright. But there's no room for that when he's carrying such precious cargo in his arms, and they both know it. So he pauses to consider the question and to give the staircase a fair evaluation.

"Yeah," Masumi decides.

He can see Tsuzuru give him a momentary look of appraisal from the corner of his eye.

"Alright," Tsuzuru says finally. "Well, I'm down here if you need anything."

"... Fine."

The better part of the next hour sees Masumi getting plenty of practice with toting Yuzuru around, and putting him down for a minute, and picking him right back up again with some different toy in tow. Yuzuru doesn't have many, but Masumi thinks he must be almost as familiar with each of them as he is with any of his own possessions by now.

They end up walking nearly the whole house at random, Yuzuru telling Masumi where he wants to go or what he wants to show him and Masumi taking him there without a second thought about it. More than once they cross paths with Tsuzuru or Kaoru or one of the others who knows what it's like to carry a small child for more than a few minutes, and more than once Masumi is told it's okay to put Yuzuru down and tell him no more for now.

These thinly veiled attempts at sparing Masumi's arms are rebuffed every time. Masumi is no weightlifter, and he's feeling that now more than he ever has before, but no amount of stiffness in his elbow joints is too great to bear for this perfect child.

At one point, Yuzuru grabs Masumi's face in both hands, managing it even though one hand clutches a fox plush, and gives him a big kiss on the cheek. He plants it long enough that he starts to giggle, bubbly laughter ringing out close to Masumi's ear. It's then that Masumi decides he would kill someone for Yuzuru if he had to.

🌸

They're downstairs when Tsuzuru comes out of the kitchen to spread the word that dinner is ready. Masumi's arms tighten reflexively around Yuzuru when Mitsuru races past them to get the twins from upstairs.

"Slow down, Mitsuru," Tsuzuru admonishes gently, then looks at Masumi with a smile. "I was hoping you'd help with dinner, but keeping an eye on him is a big help, too," he says as he loosely folds the kitchen towel in his hands.

"He's more important," Masumi says, watching Yuzuru look curiously toward the kitchen, where the racket has started to accumulate with every hungry brother that makes his way inside.

Tsuzuru snorts. "I'm glad you think so, I guess." Then, he turns to Yuzuru and continues seamlessly, "It's time to get down, okay? You have to sit at the table for dinner."

"'Kay, Tsu-Tsu," Yuzuru says, then reaches up to pet clumsy but gentle fingers through Masumi's bangs. "Time to get down," he tells him.

Masumi lets him down. The ache in his arms when he does is tremendous, but he refuses to let it show on his face, especially when Yuzuru immediately reaches for his hand.

"Masu, sit next to me, okay?"

"He will in a minute," Tsuzuru answers before Masumi can. Masumi gives him a sharp look. "You can go sit next to Takeru for now."

Yuzuru gives a disappointed whine and pouts at Tsuzuru, who stands his ground with his hands on his hips. Then, with a long-suffering sigh, he relents and lets Masumi's hand slip out of his. "'Kay... bye, Masu," he says.

"Bye, Yuzuru."

Then Yuzuru hurries off for the kitchen. The moment he turns the corner, Masumi closes his eyes in a grimace and shakes his arms out, hard. Still, he doesn't stop believing for a moment that the ache is worth it. When he opens his eyes, Tsuzuru is watching him with an unfair amount of amusement.

Masumi glares, wrinkling his nose. "Shut up."

"I didn't even say anything!"

Stubbornly, Masumi shoves his hands into his pockets. "That look on your face pisses me off," he says as three Minagi boys come thundering down the stairs.

" _Oi—_ " The pinch in Tsuzuru's brow, the look of equal parts disapproval and indignation, is just as annoying as the first expression, but is at least more familiar. "Will you watch your mouth?"

It's too late for that. The twins cackle and repeat Masumi's words as they pass, shoving Tsuzuru lightly, while Mitsuru follows quietly but gives Masumi a wide-eyed, scandalized glance.

"Alright, alright, cut that out," Tsuzuru scolds, huffily slinging the towel over his shoulder as he follows to make sure the boys don't get sidetracked on their way to the kitchen. Abruptly, he turns back and gives Masumi a fiery look that lets him know he'll get an earful later for being the catalyst to this. "Masumi, _in._ "

Masumi typically doesn't respond to being barked at. It's like Tsuzuru thinks he's just another unruly brother.

But as he files in behind the others, and as he sits next to Yuzuru and helps pass food around, even coughs out a laugh at something Kaoru says, once, he thinks there are much worse things in the world than being considered a part of this family.

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by a conversation with, and beta read by, my greatest earthly love alistair. thank you for reading! xo


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